Vermont

Dan Reicher is Executive Director of the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford University, a joint center of the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Stanford Law School, where he also holds faculty positions.

Entrepreneurs from across the country have submitted pitches for innovations and practical solutions to tackle climate challenges. Five of the leading entrepreneurs will have the chance to make 6-minute start up pitches to a panel of industry-leading judges. Judges will choose one winner for a $15,000 award!

What is the best way to universalize comprehensive home energy and efficiency retrofits while creating jobs and reducing carbon emissions?

Moderated by Carol Weston, Director of Programs and Implementation at Efficiency Vermont.

Tammy Agard is the co-founder and CEO of EEtility, a “B” (Benefit) Corporation and Energy Efficiency Program Operator located in Little Rock, Arkansas that specializes in operating on bill Energy Efficiency programs for the Rural Electric Cooperative sector.

Sue E. Coakley, Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships is Executive Director and a member of the Board of Directors. She provides strategic direction for NEEP's development, management and operations, and manages relationships with NEEP's broad base of funders. In her role, she leads NEEP’s efforts to transform markets to provide high-efficiency solutions on a regional scale.

Andy Frank is founder and CEO of Sealed, an energy services company that finances home upgrades with guaranteed energy savings.

Dan Gray - Before joining Empower, Dan Gray served as the Business and Utility Consultant for Williams Allwein & Moser, an advanced energy law firm based in Columbus, where he combined his knowledge of utility rates and regulations with his background in financial modeling to drive value for the customers in complicated energy development projects.

Ellen Kahler, Executive Director of the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund nurtures the sustainable development of Vermont’s economy by providing business assistance, network development, research and financing in agriculture and food system, forest product, waste management, renewable energy, and the climate economy sectors.

Dr. Emily Reichert serves as Chief Executive Officer of Greentown Labs, the largest clean technology startup incubator in the United States.

Marilyn Waite of Energy, Village Capital has worked across four continents in venture investment, startups, and renewable and nuclear energy, her vision is a world where sustainability values of social cohesion, environmental consciousness, intergenerational equity, and economic health drive decision-making and business practices.

What tools and best practices will encourage individuals and businesses to invest in residential and commercial electric generation, efficiency retrofits, and other climate economy solutions, while seamlessly demonstrating clear and beneficial return on investment?

Moderated by Robert Miller, CEO, VSECU

Jessica Brown is Climate Policy Initiative Associate Director at CPI and supports CPI’s work on global climate finance. Jessica previously served as a Foreign Affairs Officer at the State Department where she led all international climate finance negotiations on behalf of the United States government.

Bryan Garcia of Connecticut Green Bank is President and CEO of the nation’s first state-level green bank and demonstrating how smarter use of public resources can attract more private investment in the clean energy economy.

Robert Miller is President and Chief Executive Officer for Vermont State Employees Credit Union, a member-owned, not-for-profit, and democratically-controlled financial cooperative for everybody who lives or works in Vermont.

Dan Reicher is Executive Director of the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford University, a joint center of the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Stanford Law School, where he also holds faculty positions.

Lindsey White is a Senior Manager of the Ceres Investor Network on Climate Risk and Sustainability. The Ceres Investor Network promotes leading investment practices, corporate engagement strategies and policy solutions for North American asset owners and asset managers.

Distributed generation, grid optimization and storage, food systems renewal, recycling: creative entrepreneurs are inventing new business models that reduce carbon emissions and generate profit. Sharing stories of success that point to next stage opportunities.

Moderated by Ted Brady, Deputy Secretary, Vermont Agency of Commerce & Community Development

Ted Brady, Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development

Danny Kennedy is a clean-technology entrepreneur, an environmental activist, and the author of the book Rooftop Revolution: How Solar Power Can Save Our Economy—and Our Planet—from Dirty Energy.

Josh Whiton founded the transit-tech company TransLoc, for which he was named a White HouseChampion of Change by the Obama Administration. Recently TransLoc was named to Fast Company’s 2017 list of the most innovative companies in transportation, right alongside Uber and Tesla.

A dynamic discussion between national business and policy leaders on the current progress of the climate economy, the opportunities ahead, and how to scale these efforts to achieve their optimal potential for the renewal of the American Economy. In this moderated fishbowl conversation, industry leaders plant provocative positions, build on, or argue from each other’s ideas for next steps, and wrangle toward a platform of action and a shared vision for the future of the American economy.

Moderated by Stephen Lacey, the Editor-in-Chief of Greentech Media.

Paul Hendricks is the Manager of Environmental Responsibility at Patagonia. He focuses his efforts on reducing Patagonia’s environmental footprint and works to communicate the company’s philosophy and efforts in a way that inspires others.

Gary Hirshberg is chairman and former president and CEO of Stonyfield Farm, an organic yogurt producer, based in Londonderry, New Hampshire since 1983.

Danny Kennedy is a clean-technology entrepreneur, an environmental activist, and the author of the book Rooftop Revolution: How Solar Power Can Save Our Economy—and Our Planet—from Dirty Energy.

Stephen Lacey is editor-in-chief of Greentech Media is an accomplished journalist and editor covering the emerging field of clean energy. He is regularly sought out as an expert and commentator on energy and environmental issues.

Dr. Emily Reichert serves as Chief Executive Officer of Greentown Labs, the largest clean technology startup incubator in the United States.

Author Tim Brookes speaks on "the nature of genius" and the "powers of innocence and naivete" in his new study of the psychology of linguistics and the history of writing, including the invention of the Cherokee script by Sequoia.

Paul Hawken starts ecological businesses, writes about nature and commerce, and consults with heads of state and CEOs on climatic, economic and ecological regeneration. He has written eight books including five NYT bestsellers, The Next Economy, Growing a Business, The Ecology of Commerce, Blessed Unrest, and Drawdown (2017). The Ecology of Commerce was voted in 2013 as the #1 college text on business and the environment by professors in 67 business schools.

His book Natural Capitalism was referred to by President Bill Clinton as one of the five most important books in the world. His books have been published in over 50 countries in 30 languages. Paul founded some of the first natural food companies in the U.S. that relied solely on sustainable agricultural methods, including Erewhon.

He founded OneSun, an energy company focused on ultra low-cost solar based on green chemistry and biomimicry. He is the founder of Project Drawdown, which works with over two hundred scholars, students, scientists, researchers, and activists to map, measure, and model the one hundred most substantive solutions that reduce and sequester greenhouse gases that cumulatively can reverse global warming.